General Coffee State Park, GA; December 28, 2023 - January 2, 2024

Site #38

Other potential sites: 6 & 8*

What a quiet and peaceful campground with awesome hiking trails and a fun “farm” depicting pre-Civil War relics and stories. We LOVED this adventure!

Our trip down to General Coffee was a bit longer than the 4.5 hours we planned due to the volume of holiday traffic and I-95 being…well, I-95. That said, we made the most of it. The girls both did a lot of drawing and coloring with new sketch books and coloring books and markers Grammy gave them for Christmas that had been Grandma Rose’s, which was REALLY cool. We also had a great stop at the GA welcome center and stretched our legs while taking in a little history about Georgia…and seeing the sites in the center!

Geraldine en route!

Busy making art

Stretching her drawing skills!

Help! (At the GA visitor center!)

When we did get to the campground, our site was easy to find and get into, since it was a pull-through. The girls were helpful setting up, which was great since Auntie didn’t come on this trip. We were set up in under 45 minutes!

Our site was very private with easy access to the bath house and right off the hiking trails. We did discover during the visit that there are several sites with 50 amp hook ups, though ours was only 30. I think if we came back in the summer, we would need a 50 amp site! The loop we were on was fully paved, so Grace could easily ride her bike and hoverboard. The other loop (the older loop by the looks of it) was not paved, but there were some really good sites there that were 50amp - 6 & 8 were our favorites and right on the trail! There is a cute playground in the center of both loops that was perfect for the girls to go play on by themselves yet still within our vision. This place is a hidden gem!

The first day, we took a nice, long family hike - even Kaety walked the entire 3 miles with us! We did go the wrong direction initially, but were able to turn around and head back toward the campsite and beyond, covering three of the hiking trails that are literally steps from the campsite!

All smiles at the beginning!

Awesome boardwalks as part of the hike!

And beautiful cypress swamp!

Less eager on the return trip!

The park is really nicely laid out and the trails right off of loop 2 were also easy to bike (I did later in the week) even on a “beach bike”!

One of the attractions to the park was the fact that associated with it is “Heritage Farm”, which we did a tour of on the second day. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures, but it was a fascinating tour. Our guide, Chris, is the 7th great-grandson of the individuals who built some of the buildings pre-Civil War at the park. He walked us through the different ways people of that time would live off the land and how they constructed different things within their homes, such as a broom of twigs, to make their time easier. We walked through old, restored structures such as his grandfather’s home - a one room cabin with a loft/attic where mostly the children would sleep, with the adults in a “bed” of caning right off of the “kitchen” and fireplace. It was unreal that 14-16 people might live in a space that small - essentially one room! He also talked about the parsonage room off the back of the house where often traveling preachers would stop and stay without even pre-arranging with the family. People were a heck of a lot more trusting back then it seems! The Farm also had an old Tobacco barn where we learned about transporting, cleaning, and drying the tobacco. There was also an old steam engine! Lots of chickens, ducks, pigs, sheep and even a horse that we were able to see and learn a bit about their lineage and use on the Farm. Overall, it was a great experience!

Due to Steve’s knee being very angry with him, and the fact that I dragged everyone on a 3 mile hike the first day and on a tour the second, no one was very interested in going on a walk/hike with me on the third day, or even a bike ride! I ended up doing both by myself, but it was SO peaceful and beautiful, I really didn’t mind going it alone! I got a 3 mile bike ride and 5 mile hike in!

We also found out the morning of December 31, our second grandchild, Arik Alan Anothen (“Ari”) was born! What an AWESOME end to the year!!!!

Our beautiful daughter, Megan and Ari

SO PERFECT!

Meg, Big Sister Ellie and Baby Ari

We relaxed and played as part of our first day of the New Year 2024, did some painting, listened to some music, and in general were just grateful to begin our year out in nature, together, doing what we love to do!